Sometimes our best action result in things that are most regrettable.

And Finally I put down the last and the best advice I knew, on growing older. 'Stand up straight and try not to get fat.

Murtagh was right about women. Sassenach, I risked my life for ye, committing theft, arson, assault, and murder into the bargain. In return for which ye call me names, insult my manhood, kick me in the ballocks and claw my face. Then I beat you half to death and tell ye all the most humiliating things have ever happened to me, and ye say ye love me." He laid his head on his knees and laughed some more. Finally he rose and held out a hand to me, wiping his eyes with the other. "You're no verra sensible, Sassenach, but I like ye fine. Let's go.

Torn between the impulse to stroke his head, and the urge to cave it in with a rock, I did neither.

We have nothing now between us, save - respect, perhaps. And I think that respect has maybe room for secrets, but not for lies.

I stood still, vision blurring, and in that moment, I heard my heart break. It was a small, clean sound, like the snapping of a flower's stem.

Conflict and character are the heart of good fiction, and good mystery has both of those in spades.